The Ultimate Truth
by Only-eyes-for-Riddick
Summary: Part 5 in the Elemental series. Airiala has just discovered the Ultimate Truth only moments before the Final Battle is to begin. But with every truth there are consequences. Will Airiala be able to face them and save everyone?
1. Chapter 1

**Part 5 of 6 of the Ultimate Truth series. Please enjoy and just a reminder, I do not own Harry Potter.**

The sun was bright this last morning of the school term, but Airiala only felt darkness.

The pages that Lando had given her weren't wrong, but she realized now that they didn't apply to the Wind Elemental. She was too free and too unlikely to fall in love.

She looked down at the diary she had just read, the diary that contained the Ultimate Truth.

Tears filled her eyes and slowly made their way down her cheeks, but she didn't allow herself to make a sound.

It made sense now why her powers weren't working, why she having so many issues with it. She had told Severus that she basically felt nothing but friendship for him. A lie just as Wendy had told, claiming indifference rather than just coming out and admitting the feelings.

Gabriel had asked Wendy if there was any reason not to return to the priesthood and Wendy didn't admit how she felt, just as Severus had asked her if that night meant anything to her and she blamed it on loneliness.

Now Severus hated her and it was only by admitting her love for Severus that she would be able to activate the Ultimate Truth, but doing so would kill her. If she continued to say nothing and allowed her indifference to stand then she wouldn't be able to use her powers to help in the battle.

She would be a burden to everyone and could end up getting someone killed.

She stood, letting the diary fall to the floor at her feet. She looked out the window at the rising sun and knew that today would be the day that Voldemort would attack, today would be the day that she would have to finally admit the Ultimate Truth.

Today would be her last day on Earth.

* * *

Raina could tell that something was wrong.

The wind outside wasn't moving. It was almost like the world had stopped, but she knew that couldn't be the case.

The wind would always remain in motion as long as the Wind Elemental was alive, and Airiala was alive.

She looked out across the lake and saw no ripples, no waves, not a single bit of motion. It was frightening, looking out a window at what could be a painting.

She looked at Pyro, who had walked up next to her, and he too had a look of worry upon his face when looking out across the still landscape.

"This isn't good," he said.

"I know," she replied, "but I don't know what it is at all either. I have no memory of this ever occurring before. Do you?"

Pyro shook his head. "None. It's like this has never happened before, but at the same time I have feeling like it has. Like it happened and I just don't...remember..."

Pyro turned to Raina with shock in his eyes. Raina narrowed her eyes in confusion. "What is it Pyro?"

"I don't know..." he said before turning away from her, running his hand in a frustrated gesture through his hair. "But usually I remember everything from my past lives, but an event where the power of one Elemental doing something like this...it's blank."

Raina nodded. "I know. It's almost like..." Her eyes widened as a thought crossed her mind. "You don't think that Airiala...?"

Pyro nodded to the unfinished question.

"I think the Wind Elemental has discovered the Ultimate Truth."

* * *

Lando was in a great mood.

Airiala was no longer going down into the dusty dungeons, that nasty Potions Master wasn't talking to her anymore, and Airiala was right there and nearly his.

All he had to do now was reel her in.

He knocked on the door to her room, a bouquet of daisies in his hand. He wasn't sure what type of flower she really liked, but he hoped that it was daisies. They were simple, yet beautiful, just like her.

The door opened and Lando's smile dropped.

Airiala looked like she hadn't slept in days, her hair was flat and lacked the brightness it normally had, and her eyes...

Her eyes almost looked dead.

"Airiala? Are you okay?"

She looked at him, or more likely looked through him. "Lando?"

He nodded, confused by what he was seeing. How was this possible? What had happened to his beautiful Wind Elemental?

* * *

Severus was busy cleaning up his office. It was what he always did on the last day of the school year and he wasn't about to change it now.

Besides, he hadn't really cleaned up since that night except for his papers and it finally was driving him mad. Anger filled him as he lifted another item back onto it's shelf.

Airiala did this. Airiala ruined his office.

Airiala hurt him just as Lily had, only worse. At least Lily hadn't slept with him out of loneliness or pity. Lily, at least, had the decency to walk away and ignore him instead of filling him with hope and then bashing it into the ground like Airiala had.

She was the lowest person he knew and he no longer wanted to think about her at all.

He put away another potion item and turned to get the next one. His thoughts still filled with Airiala.

He had just placed the last item back on it's shelf, his mind still whirling with thoughts of Airiala and his current anger at her when he felt a sharp pain in arm followed by a violent shake of the ground.

* * *

Lando opened his mouth to speak when the building rocked violently. The daisies in his hand went flying as he body slammed down to the ground. He looked over at Airiala and found that she too had hit the ground.

Footsteps were pounding on the ground and the other Elementals came around the corner.

"It's time," Pyro said firmly. "He's here."

They wasted no more time and proceeded to run down the hallway. Students were clogging everything and it made it difficult to run. They knew that they only had a matter of time before Voldemort arrived and made his official move.

That first hit had been a warning shot, he wouldn't do such again.

They found Harry, surrounded by Ron, Hermione, and a whole gaggle of teachers. Severus was not among them.

Airiala mentally shook the thought from her mind. She couldn't think about him right now, she couldn't think about Severus. She had to focus at the task at hand. If what she believed was true and her words to Severus the other day had caused her powers to short out she would need ever ounce of her concentration to get any movement out of the wind.

She shouldn't think at all about...

"Severus!"

Airiala turned her head and saw the man approaching, wand in hand. He walked right passed her, not even sparing her a glance. Her chest constricted in pain at the indifference he showed her.

"Minerva, he's coming fast. We need to find a way to slow him down a little until the Order members can arrive."

Raina stepped forward. "I have an idea." She turned to Lando. "Can you make the ground nothing but dirt?"

Lando nodded and then lifted his hands before jerking them down towards the ground. The grass that had been growing so beautifully was gone, leaving nothing but a dirt field in it's wake.

Raina stepped forward and took a large water bubble from the lake and dropped it onto the field, turning all the dirt into sticky mud.

Pyro smirked. "Good plan Raina, that will slow them down a little, but their magic will still reach us." He turned to Airiala.

"Do you think that you can make it windy out there, enough that the magic spells they may hurl at us would be pushed off course?"

Airiala took a deep breath. To do that would require a large amount of her energy, and she wouldn't be able to do anything else in the meantime. She glanced at Severus and then back at her fellow Elementals.

"I can," she said before stepping forward.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before forcing her powers. The wind began to blow, gently at first and then a little more powerful.

Under normal circumstances, something like this would be nothing, but at this moment it was taking every ounce of her power to get the wind to blow at all.

"Come on Airala," Raina said. "You can do it."

Airiala fell to her knees, her body was crying out to stop, but she continued to force it. She knew that it would be difficult, but this was getting ridiculous.

Across the now muddy field, men emerged from the Forbidden Forest. Deatheaters, one and all, being lead by Voldemort.

He was a hideous man, resembling more of a snake rather than a man, bald and pasty white and no real nose, only slits where the nose should be. Pyro kept his eyes on Airiala as tried to make the wind blow harder while Lando and Raina continued to make the mud field muddier and Lando even went to work moving the mud around to make it more difficult to walk on.

Airiala looked up at the approaching army and knew that this power wasn't going to be enough.

If she wanted to protect her friends and her Elemental family, she had no choice.

She was going to have to tell the Ultimate Truth.


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own Harry Potter, just saying.**

Airiala continued to force the wind across the grounds. She knew that what she was doing wasn't really helping anyone, but it was still slowing the Deatheaters down slightly.

Raina had started throwing balls of water at them which Pyro and Lando hurling their own elements as well. Fire, Water, and Earth flew across the fields like cannons, some strong enough that the Deatheaters were hurled back towards the Forbidden Forest.

Not a single shot aimed at the Dark Lord hit him, nor did the mud or wind have any effect.

Airiala knew that only the Ultimate Truth combined with the power of Harry Potter would defeat Voldemort, but at the moment she was very nearly collapsed to the ground with all the effort she was using to keep the wind blowing. If she said the Ultimate Truth now it would kill her before she could use it to help anyone.

She looked up and saw Lucius Malfoy in the crowd. Anger filled her veins as memories of his attacks over the year returned to her.

She forced herself to her feet and focused her power into a tornado storm out on the field. She hadn't attempted this since that day at the beginning of the year, but she wasn't about to stop now. The wind focused out on the crowds and Airiala could hear the voices around her now.

"Airiala, stop!" Lando.

"Airiala, what are you doing?" Raina.

"Airiala, that's dangerous!" Pyro.

All around her she could hear voices telling her to stop, but the one voice she wanted to hear the most remained silent. If he wasn't concerned about her, then she wasn't going to worry about killing herself.

It didn't matter anyways right, he hated her now. Maybe she could blow them away and she wouldn't have to worry about revealing the Ultimate Truth. She could slowly die from any attempt to use her magic.

She fell down to one knee. Assuming that this didn't kill her first.

She forced herself, yet again, back to her feet and focused all her energy into the tornado that she was now whipping across the fields.

Voldemort's eyes focused on her for a brief moment before he too was swept up in the storm.

Once all the Deatheaters were flying about in the tornado's winds, Airiala used her last bit of strength to push the tornado as far from Hogwarts as she could.

Her ears were ringing and her heart was pounding, but she still pushed until her body gave out and she collapsed.

Lando rushed forward the minute Airiala's body hit the ground, Raina and Pyro right behind him.

He gently checked for a pulse and found it weak beneath his fingers. "My god! She's still alive!"

Raina and Pyro fell next to the girl as well and Raina also checked for a pulse. "It's weak, but it's there. We need to get her to the infirmary as soon as possible."

"How do we move her?"

Suddenly Airiala lifted into the air, suspended by a spell. The other three Elementals turned to see Severus using his wand to keep Airiala immobile and levitated. He turned without saying a word and guided the unconscious girl down the hallway.

The other teachers and staff were too busy making battle plans to really notice, except for Dumbledore.

He had stayed out of the way for most of the situation regarding Airiala, Severus, and the other Elementals. He knew that he couldn't interfere in the Ultimate Truth, that it was something that would show itself in time.

In his own personal research he had learned that the Ultimate Truth was something that only the Wind Elemental could speak and wield, but it would come at a great cost. What that cost was he hadn't had time to discover, but he was willing to bet that her life could very well hang in the balance.

Dumbledore wanted nothing more that to see both Airiala and Severus happy, with each other. He wasn't blind and had noticed the mutual feelings growing between the two.

He just wasn't sure what had happened recently to cause the two of them to stop speaking to each other.

* * *

Severus slowly lowered the Air Elemental onto the bed in the hospital wing. Several students were in there with various injuries after Voldemort's initial attack.

Lando rushed to the girl's side and Severus felt a rush of possessiveness and anger fill him before he pushed it aside. She didn't care about him and she wouldn't look to him to solve her problem of loneliness again.

She had the Earth Elemental.

Raina and Pyro stood next to Airiala's other side, both with worried look on their faces. Severus turned and looked at the Air Elemental, really looked at her, for the first time since she had fallen.

Her hair was limp and lifeless, her face paler than he had ever seen it, her eyes had dark circles under them, and her lips were pale rather than the pink that he remembered.

He couldn't help the worry that filled him at seeing her that way. What had happened to her? When had this started?

He thought back to when she was using her powers to push the Deatheaters back. She had fallen to her knees twice when the last time he had seen her use such power she had been able to walk and remain standing for a short time afterwards. She hadn't looked so close to death as she did now.

What had changed?

"Airiala?" Raina said gently brushing the girl's bangs from her face. Severus watched as Lando reached out and pushed Raina's hand away. He glared at the girl, as if it was her fault Airiala was lying in that bed.

Raina's eyes widened at Lando for a moment before she turned a concerned look to Pyro then back to Airiala.

"She's mine," Lando said firmly. "No one is going to be touching her but me."

Severus glared at the young man and almost reached out and yanked him from Airiala's side. She didn't and couldn't belong to anyone. She was the Wind Elemental and, as such, couldn't survive in such an environment.

He had realized that a long time ago, but thought that maybe they could find a way to be together, but he knew that was impossible after all.

Instead he turned and walked out of the infirmary. He had to get back to the front to help with strategy and battle plans before Voldemort returned from wherever Airiala had tossed him.

* * *

Airiala was in a dark place.

She was light and floating, but she knew that this was somewhere in between life and death. Despite the darkness she felt light and relaxed, more so than she had in a really long time.

She thought it would be nice to just stay here and not go back to the real world and not deal with the Ultimate Truth at all.

"You need to go back."

Airiala opened her eyes slowly. She expected to see more darkness, but was surprised to see that she was lying in a green field with a gentle breeze blowing over her.

She sat up slowly and looked around before her eyes landed on a young woman standing only a few feet away from her.

She was smiling at Airiala, her dress dancing slightly in the wind. Her dress was brown and looked like it was something out of another era. Her gray hair was pulled back in a bun on her head, and her silver eyes were shining behind a pair of glasses.

Despite she had never laid eyes on this girl before, Airiala felt a kinship to her and stood to face her.

"You don't belong here yet," the woman said to her softly. "Someday you will, but not today. You need to go back."

"To what?" Airiala said firmly. She took a deep breath and looked to her right towards the horizon. "Severus doesn't love me, and if I reveal the Ultimate Truth all that will happen is that he will reject me and I will die. I'm already here, so why don't I just stay?"

"You aren't dead."

Airiala turned back to the girl in shock. "What are you talking about?"

The girl stepped forward towards Airiala. "This isn't heaven, you aren't dead."

Airiala looked around at the peaceful surroundings and then back at the girl before her. "If I'm not dead, then where am I? Who are you?"

The girl smiled wider. "You know who I am, and this is just a place in your heart and soul that all Elementals could access if they tried hard enough. This is where all your previous incarnations exist, and this is the only place where the Ultimate Truth is known.

"Only the most powerful of Elementals could access this. Believe it or not, not all Elementals are created equal. Your friend Lando is the perfect example. He can control the land and Earth, but he could never alter it like my friend Graize could. He too was an Earth Elemental, but he was much stronger and more powerful than Lando is.

"You are the most powerful Wind Elemental to have ever existed, and that is why you know the Ultimate Truth without revealing it unknowingly. Every other time the Wind Elemental told the Ultimate Truth it was just because they wanted to tell the person they loved how they felt, they didn't know there would be consequences. You are the first to discover the Ultimate Truth by strength, determination, and research. You are also able to do so much more now that you know it."

The girl stepped forward and leaned in close to Airiala, her nose almost touching Airiala's.

"You, Airiala, can use the true power of the Ultimate Truth and wield all the elements at once."


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own Harry Potter. Please don't forget to read and review! :)**

Airiala awoke with a start, leaping up and nearly knocking heads with Lando who was leaning so close to her.

Lando jumped back quickly and ended up on the floor next to her bed. Airiala didn't notice as she observed her surroundings.

She was back at Hogwarts, in the infirmary. She wasn't sure how she had gotten there, but she knew that she had to get out of there.

If what she had just learned was true, then she could reveal the Ultimate Truth and be able to save everyone before slipping into her coma and dying. She could still help Harry like they had planned from the start.

She could still help end this.

"Airiala!" Raina said with a wide smile. She looked like she was going to lean in for a hug but changed her mind at the last minute. Airiala was confused about that, but didn't say anything. It wasn't important right now.

All that mattered was...

"Where's Severus?"

Raina's eyes widened in surprise before she had a smile grace her lips. "He's at the front with the other teachers. They are planning some sort of strategy to..."

Raina never got to finish what she was going to say.

The building shook, much more violently than before. Apparently Voldemort didn't like being flung out of the area as he had been and was taking it out on the school.

Airiala wasted no time flying out of the bed and out of the room, leaving the other Elementals behind. There was no time if Voldemort was back in action.

She turned down a hallway on her path to the front of the school. The path that would lead her to Severus and the end of all this.

Suddenly her feet stopped and she hit the ground from the sudden stop. She turned her head to see what had stopped her and found herself face to face with Draco Malfoy himself. He was smirking down at her and she realized almost instantly that he had been the one to stop her.

She also knew that the power she had used to fling the Deatheaters away had taken most of her strength and there was no way she could fight this child in battle if it came to it.

"Father's been looking for you," Draco said before silencing Airiala's voice and dragging her out of the hallway.

* * *

Severus stood from where he had ducked down with the other teachers over the trio.

"What was that?" Ron said as he stood slowly.

"Voldemort," Harry said with a sneer. "That was a shot of anger. He's pretty pissed at Airiala for what she did, I'm sure."

Severus said nothing in response. He knew what the boy was saying was true. He had seen the glare that the Dark Lord had sent her before he was caught up in the whirlwind she had created. He wasn't happy and when that happened, people tend to die.

He watched as the other Order members finally arrived moments later, coming into the school through alternative means that the Dark Lord was unaware of.

Dumbledore went over to them to start updating them on the situation, but Severus found that his mind was not on the task at hand.

He was still thinking of Airiala, in the infirmary, so close to death when before such power had done little but knock the air out of her, no pun intended.

He didn't understand what had changed.

Did it have something to do with the Earth Elemental's crush on her? Or was it something different. Had it been fading all this time and no one ever noticed?

He didn't have too much longer to think about it because seconds later the three other Elementals arrived at the front, and each one looked around the room and came back looking more confused than the last.

"Where's the Air Elemental?" Severus said firmly. "Surely you didn't leave her alone up there in the infirmary?"

Lando glared at the Potions Master, but said nothing. Pyro stepped forward and spoke instead. "Airiala woke up suddenly. She asked where you were seconds before the blast on the building. Right after she took off here and we thought for sure that she would have beaten us here. We don't know where she is right now."

Dumbledore approached the group, his eyes narrowing at the confusion he was seeing. "What is going..."

"She's missing!" Lando cried out to Dumbledore. "Airiala is gone. She's so sweet and delicate and I don't know where she is. She started running here and that was the last I saw of her!"

Dumbledore looked up at the other Elementals and Severus before he let the panic begin to set in. He turned back to the group preparing behind him. "Harry!"

Harry turned at the sound of his name and approached Dumbledore quickly. His eyes filled with panic at the tension he sensed around the group.

"I need the Marauder's Map. I know that you have it."

Harry's eyes widened at that information, but he reached into his pocket and pulled out the map. "I had it on me to help keep an eye on the other entrances to Hogwarts," he said firmly. They unfolded the map and Harry spoke, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The blank pages of the map changed until they had it all laid out in front of them.

Most of the people were either at the front entrance or in the infirmary or dorms, but there was two sets of footprints that were way outside of both of those areas, heading through a secret passage out of Hogwarts.

One set read 'Draco Malfory'

The other read 'Airiala Jones'

Severus suddenly felt as if a part of him was missing, a part that he so desperately wanted back. It was almost ten times worse than when he lost Lily.

Lando's face turned red at the sight of those sets of footprints. "She's being taken, what are we going to do?"

Seconds later the footprints disappeared from the map. Harry looked up at the Earth Elemental sadly. "There is nothing we can do, they're gone from Hogwarts grounds."

The ground shook with Lando's rage and, for the first time since meeting him, Severus felt the same as Lando.

* * *

Airiala tried to struggle, but found that, unlike his father, Draco actually cared enough to keep himself in shape and was more powerful than his father.

He would still have been no match against her had she been at full strength, but she hadn't corrected the issue with Severus yet and as a result her powers were still giving her trouble.

Draco dragged her off Hogwarts grounds, she almost physically felt it the moment they were off the grounds. She struggled, but found that she couldn't fight him off.

He pulled her through the forest quickly and quietly. The silence was deafening as almost all the creatures were now in hiding due to Voldemort's arrival there. Their breathing was the only sound that was breaking the silence, and strangely enough Airiala was glad for it.

Draco hadn't killed her, luckily. He also didn't know that she knew the Ultimate Truth either. Had he known, killing her when he found her would have assured them victory over Harry and the others.

Now she just had to keep the truth away from Voldemort and not die in her attempts to get back to Hogwarts, back to Severus.

They broke through the tree line and Airiala almost screamed, or she would have had she had the ability to do so.

There were at least a hundred Deatheaters there, all wearing masks and hoods. They were glaring at her, as if they had known that she was the reason they had been flung away when so close to their prize.

Draco didn't stop, he just continued to pull her forward, through the crowd of Deatheaters, towards the center of the field.

Never before had Airiala felt such hatred focused on her. It was almost stifling, she could barely breath.

The next second she knew, Draco flung her forward so she felt to the ground. She lifted her head slightly to find that he had flung her at the feet of the Dark Lord himself.

She looked up at him, malice in her eyes. He was even more hideous up close.

"So," he said looking down at her, "you are the Air Elemental that has been causing me all this trouble this past year. Even with Lucius' description of you I never imagined how pretty you would be."

He pulled his wand from his sleeve and lifted Airiala into the air, hovering her in front of him. He stepped forward so that he was almost nose to nose (well, if he had a nose) with her.

"Now then," he said firmly, his eyes focused on her stormy ones, "let us see what you know about the Ultimate Truth."

**Don't forget to review please, and thank you. :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Far warning: I do not own Harry Potter. I'm just borrowing the characters for a bit of craziness and then returning them to their rightful place. **

Keeping a secret when the man before you can literally read your mind is a very difficult thing to do. Airiala had to focus on anything else to keep him from being able to tell what she knew about the Ultimate Truth.

She had just gone through another verse of the song that never ends when Voldemort's face twisted into anger and she was tossed to the ground.

The impact caused all sorts of pain to run through her body and the rock she had landed on didn't help matters either.

She turned her head and glared up at him, but he didn't seem to care. He pointed his wand at her, malice and anger filled in his gaze.

"_Crucio!_"

* * *

Raina and Pyro were looking out across Hogwarts grounds in the direction Airiala had been taken. Although they knew that Airiala had been taken through the Forbidden Forest, neither one knew what they could do to retrieve her back.

Lando had wanted to send a team out to search for her and destroy the Deatheaters wherever they were, but the plan was very quickly rejected as a suicide mission that no one was going to go on. Lando was currently pouting in the corner of the Great Hall.

"Do you think that she will be okay?" Raina said softly.

Pyro pulled Raina into his arms, keeping his eyes on the treeline. "Airiala has been on her own for a very long time. I think that she can handle whatever it is that the Deatheaters throw at her."

Raina lifted her head and looked into Pyro's eyes, her own filled with tears. "But her powers are acting up. Surely you noticed just how much it took out of her to do what she did to give us more time. It almost killed her."

"Voldemort won't kill her."

The two elementals turned to Dumbledore who had joined them. "He needs all of the elementals alive to activate the Ultimate Truth properly, although they do not all have to be in the same place."

"Do you think that Airiala knows what the Ultimate Truth is?" Pyro said to the older man. Dumbledore shrugged, his eyes on the trees searching with a worried glance.

"I do not know, but if she does she needs to keep it to herself until she can return here to us."

* * *

Airiala had heard of the Crucio curse before. It was nothing new, but experiencing it and hearing about the experience then trying to imagine what it was like are two very different things.

Pain flowed out from the point of impact and caused her entire body to convulse. She held in her screams of pain, not wanting to give Voldemort the satisfaction of hearing it. She wanted to scream, to do anything to make the pain seem to lessen, but she wouldn't do it.

She rolled about on the ground as the pain increased. It seemed her lack of response was making him angrier and so he was trying to get a sound out of her now.

She wasn't sure how she was able to do it, but she found her way to her feet. The pain was unbearable, but she wanted to defy him, wanted him to know that no matter what he did he would never break her.

She lifted her eyes him, defiance in her gaze. His own eyes narrowed and he turned to Lucius, who lifted his own wand and sent another Crucio curse at her. Draco followed soon after.

Three Crucio curses caused the sound Voldemort wanted to hear. The pain was too much and Airiala fell to the ground, her scream carrying on the wind blowing around her.

* * *

Severus and Lando both looked up as the sound of a woman's scream hit Hogwarts. Suddenly Severus was filled with hope, because that was Airiala's scream. He hated the thought of her in pain, but knowing that she was meant that she was still alive and that gave him hope that he would see her again.

Despite the night he confronted her about it, he felt the need to actually speak with her again. He wanted to talk to her, to let her know that while it may have been loneliness for her, it meant something to him.

He wanted to try and make something work with her, even if only for a short time. Having her for a day was better than never having her at all.

Lando was filled with panic at the sound of Airala's scream. If she was screaming that meant that she was in pain, and if she was in pain that meant that they were hurting her, and if they were hurting her than that could mean that they would do worse things to her.

No one touched what belongs to Lando and, as far as he was concerned, that included Airiala.

* * *

Airiala was lying on the ground, her arms wrapped around her middle as the pain continued. After that first scream, she hadn't made another noise.

The wind was whirling around her, a symptom of her pain only and not something that she was controlling.

The fact that she had the wind moving at all was a good sign. It meant that her power was returning to her, but it would still never be as strong as it was before being indifferent to Severus.

Tears flowed form her eyes and still she didn't scream. She had given one scream to this pain and that was all she was willing to let go.

Then the pain stopped and Airiala felt the wind stop with it as she gulped in breath of much needed fresh air.

"Now," Voldemort said moving closer, "What is the Ultimate Truth?"

Airiala didn't respond and continued to take deep breaths into her lungs. Her skin was covered in sweat, dirt, and grass. In a moment of clarity she did the only thing she could think of to get a message to her friends.

She got up on her hands and knees, Voldemort still hovering above her, she glanced and noticed that all eyes were on their master, none were on her other that Voldemort's.

She drew a map and a wrote help before Voldemort hit her on the back of her shoulders sending her back to the ground.

"To Lando," she whispered, her hand flat on the map. She felt the grooved disappear and was thankful that this part of her plan worked when she felt someone grab her hair and used it to lift her to her knees.

She looked up at the Dark Lord, a children's nursery rhyme repeating in her head. If Voldemort tried to take what he wanted from her by force, she was going to at least try and make it difficult for him.

* * *

Severus, Lando, and the rest of the staff were standing in the front corridor of the school. Many of them planning and some hoping for the best result in this battle.

Raina and Pyro were sitting by the front doors watching a pacing Severus and foot-tapping Lando.

"I feel like this could have been avoided had we never gotten involved with the relationship," Raina said finally. "She may have fallen for Lando on her own."

"Do you seriously believe that?" Pyro said, his eyes focused on Severus. "I don't think it would have mattered either way. Lando doesn't love her, he just wants her because she is a fellow Elemental and, to him, it makes sense. Severus has no ulterior motive to care for her at all, and yet he does."

"Is that why you wanted to be with me Pyro? Because I was another Elemental?"

Pyro moved his eyes from Severus to Raina, whose blue eyes were looking up at him with concern for her friend and sadness at what they were witnessing.

"Honestly, I feared the Water Elemental," he said softly. Raina's eyes turned to confusion and Pyro almost laughed, but his worry for Airiala was too great. "I am the Fire Elemental, and what is used to put out fires? Water.

"I feared that the Water Elemental would want to put me out or we would be enemies. Then, when I met you, I knew that there was nothing I needed to fear. I feared Lando more than you because I feared he would fall for you and take you from me."

"Then why...?" It didn't need to be said what she was referring too. He remembered the pain in her eyes all too well.

Pyro looked over at Lando and then back at Severus before returning his eyes to Raina. "I was scared you would break my heart. Scared that you would hurt me with your powers, or that I would hurt you with mine. I'm fire and you are water and in my mind they couldn't mix. I was too blind to see that without fire and heat, water could not become vapor and make clouds and rain, could not help create life.

"I knew then that I needed you to be with me more than anything else." He looked up at Severus. "Like that man, I know that I was wrong to push you away and wrong to hurt you. I just hope that you could come to forgive me one day."

Raina gently touched Pyro's chest, right above his heart. He turned his eyes back to her and she looked up at him with all the emotion that she was feeling for him but could not say at this moment.

"You're already forgiven."

Pyro smiled at her before turning to look at Lando, who had just stopped his foot tapping and was now leaning down towards the ground.

Lando stood and looked back at Pyro and Raina before waving them over.

"Lando is calling us."

The two Elementals walked over to Lando, who was once again kneeling down towards the ground. "Lando?"

"Airiala is alive," Lando said with a smile, "and she is calling for my help."


End file.
